Russian reservists forced to buy their own gear are finding sky-high prices in stores, reports say.
Some items like body armor vests cost up to 10 times than normal, one Russian news site wrote.
Putin last month announced a mobilization of 300,000 Russian reservists to fight in Ukraine.
Prices are through the roof at Russia's military and outdoor gear stores, Russian news outlets report. This comes as thousands of Russian conscripts drafted for the Ukraine war scramble to purchase their own supplies because Moscow isn't giving them what they need.
Men's thermal underwear now costs up to $340 in some stores, while hiking backpacks are priced at up to $600, per Russian business news outlet Kommersant. A pair of gloves now sets a Russian soldier back by $260, while night vision devices have hit the staggering price of $810, per Kommersant.
The demand for first aid kits, tactical gloves, and berets tapered off in recent weeks, but their prices remain at exorbitant levels, reported Kommersant.
A typical body armor vest is now worth $729, business news site BFM.ru reported on Wednesday. The vests cost just $133 at the start of 2022, BFM.ru reported.
In some cases, the price of body armor can even go up to $2,188, said Senator Lyudmila Narusova, who represents the region of Tuva, per Russian business newspaper RBC.ru.
BFM.ru journalists reported that they contacted a chain store selling military gear, and asked to buy two Class IV bulletproof vests, which are designed to stop bullets from penetrating armor. The store told the journalists the vests were out of stock.
It's unclear whether sellers are intentionally inflating the prices due to the demand, or because stocks are running low. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on why the prices are skyrocketing and why equipment for conscripts is lacking.
Meanwhile, Russia's Federal Anti-monopoly Service also warned stores not to overprice medical and military supplies, per RIA Novosti.
The buying frenzy started after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in September that 300,000 reservists would be drafted to fight in the Ukraine war.
Some Russian draftees say they've had to purchase combat equipment and that the military failed to give them supplies, per The Guardian. One mobilized reservist told his sister he had to paint his gun to hide the rust on the weapon, The Guardian reported.
"They gave us absolutely no equipment. The army has nothing, we had to buy all our gear ourselves," he said.
In a viral Twitter video posted on October 17, a Russian soldier is seen complaining that he was given a "bulletproof vest" actually meant for Airsoft games. Insider could not independently verify where or when the clip was taken.
—Special Kherson Cat ??? (@bayraktar_1love) October 17, 2022
The UK's Ministry of Defence tweeted on Saturday an update that it, too, received intelligence that Russian soldiers were buying their own body armor at exorbitant prices. The MOD added that the quality of the average Russian reservist's equipment now is far worse than what was provided to earlier Russian deployments.
Western intelligence sources have reported since the war began on February 24 that Russia's invasion has consistently been badly supplied and understaffed.
Russia also has not shown that it has the logistics to properly equip and train 300,000 reservists in a short time, Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University told Insider's Erin Snodgrass and Kelsey Vlamis in September.
Read the original article on Business Insider
President Biden lost his temper on a phone call with Zelenskyy when the Ukraine president asked for more aid right after Biden told him he'd greenlit $1 billion in aid.
"I went home on Aug 10, 2023, I'm home with my family," the soldier wrote. "I'm having a nice time in Khabarovsk, with my wife and my girls."
The ex-president's son continued to pile on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband after he was seriously hurt in a hammer attack in their home.
TETIANA LOZOVENKO - MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2022, 13:25 Ukrainian intelligence has confirmed the destruction of two Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters at the airfield in the Pskov Oblast on the night of 31 October.
At the beginning of the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine, Viacheslav Bohuslaev, the then president of the Motor Sich Company, ordered the disassembling of the helicopters produced by that corporation so that Ukrainian pilots could not use them.
A Mi-2 multi-purpose helicopter has been found during an inspection of containers at the Odesa customs office, the press service of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) reported on Oct. 31.
Today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments that will likely result in its overturning of affirmative action in education. The plaintiffs allege that race-conscious school admissions are a form of discrimination against White and Asian students. It’s bad! But there are actually two separate arguments today about the constitutionality about affirmative action, because Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recused herself from one due to a potential conflict of interest. Justice Clarence Thomas is seein
Donald Trump Jr. retweeted the costume that referenced the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband and wrote "The internet remains undefeated."
Russian officers are complaining about thefts of military equipment by their own soldiers in Ukraine: they’re steal thermal imagers and send them home, one officer said in an intercepted phone call shared by Ukrainian intelligence on Telegram on Oct. 30.
Former President Trump in an interview Sunday called the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband in their San Francisco home a “terrible thing” as he railed against crime in Democrat-led cities. “With Paul Pelosi, that’s a terrible thing, with all of them it’s a terrible thing,” Trump said in an interview with Americano Media,…
A note sourced by Reuters showed a soldier needing ammo, complaining that "the machine gun still won't work if it has no bullets inside."
Russian occupation forces are continuing attempts to advance on the Donetsk front, but units of Ukraine's defence forces and of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine are deterring the Russian forces.
Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona, made light Monday of the violent assault against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband on Friday. “It is not impossible to protect our kids at school. They act like it is,” Lake said at a campaign stop along her “Ask Me Anything” tour. “Nancy Pelosi — well,…
The president of the aggressor country, Vladimir Putin, has declared that the mobilisation in Russia has been completed, but he claims that he does not know whether a separate decree is required to this effect.
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization ran a scheme to dodge payroll taxes by giving executives compensation in the form of untaxed "perks."
Over the course of the war in Ukraine, Russian forces have been left with outdated and obsolete weaponry like Soviet-era tanks and guns.
Musk replied to a tweet from Clinton by linking to a story with unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding Paul Pelosi's attack.
"Is that a threat? Good for you," Gutfeld responded
CHISINAU (Reuters) -Moldova declared a Russian embassy employee in the capital Chisinau persona non grata on Monday, and Russian news agencies quoted Moscow as saying it would respond to the decision. The Moldovan Foreign Ministry did not identify the employee in a statement issued after the Russian ambassador was summoned and informed that the employee must leave Moldova. Relations between Chisinau and Moscow are strained by the presence of Russian peacekeeping troops in Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, and have risen further during the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
IRYNA BALACHUK - SUNDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2022, 13:13 Serhii Haidai, the head of Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, has stated that the Russian occupiers blew up a bridge over the Krasna River near the village of Krasnorichenske in Luhansk Oblast, because they were afraid that Ukraine's Armed Forces were closing in.